Muntaka’s Back Pass, The Referee’s Worst Nightmare

"We need whistleblowers. They keep our institutions honest. From Enron, to Walkerton, to the intelligence failures around 9-11, whistleblowers have made a huge contribution to informing the public and fighting corruption and incompetence"

In narrating the story of creation, a preacher said when God came down to Adam and asked “have you eaten the fruit that I forbade you to eat?” Adam said “the woman that you gave me…” blaming his misconduct on his wife, Eve. When God turned to Eve and asked “what have you done?” Eve‘s response- “it is the serpent..”- blamed her misconduct on the serpent. When the serpent was accused, the poor reptile found no other beast to blame for its action. So has it been with humanity since the days of Adam. And so it was in the days of Mohammed Muntaka Mubarak at the ministry of Youth and Sports in Ghana.

The government’s report on various allegations leveled at the ex minister of youth and sports makes interesting reading. The reports clearly indicted the ex minister on a number of issues but managed to blame the accountant, the chief director or some “mafia group” at the ministry for his misconduct, then declares him exonerated. A minister takes over a ministry and doesn’t apprise himself of procedures and processes at that place before signing documents, drawing money and submitting claims? Mr. E.T Mensah knew what he was saying when he suggested that the ex-minister should have humbled himself to take his paces. This raises issues of competence and once again brings to question some of the president’s appointments. The quest to empower the youth with responsibility does not absolve the appointing authorities of the responsibility to establish competence before making appointments. To be candid, some of the president’s appointees will not make it on the shortlist of candidates for any line management position in most organizations in Ghana. How then do we entrust management of the country to such?

Maybe there is a mafia that the ex-minister was trying to dismantle at the ministry with the hope of saving us money. But we would have lost all the savings on airfares for young secretaries of ranking members in parliament. And the president described this as an error in judgment? Mr. Muntaka Mohammed had clearly compromised his reformist and anti-corruption credentials at the place. The moral undertones of his actions are for his wife and religious instructors to deal with, but the financial implications hurt the nation. Alhaji, you have let down the youth of this nation and the president.

Faced with the embarrassment the young man he reposed his trust in had brought to him, the president went after poor civil servants who reported the minister’s misconduct. This is the reason few people report wrong doings in our society. Many years ago, we witnessed an attack on a shop by armed bandits and my dad warned us not to mention what we witnessed to any soul- do you blame him? A young internal auditor reported irregularities that others have failed to report for years. His reward was a transfer and frustration at his new station. What lesson did he learn? Your guess is as good as mine. Another young man who blew the whistle on irregularities in his company got fired because somebody leaked his identity to his company. ? Is there any wonder people hardly help the police with information in this country? Do you trust that your identity will be kept secret if you go to the police and blow the lid on a crime?

I have heard people questioning the motivation of the accountant in writing the said letter to the president reporting the minister’s indiscretions, but that is neither here nor there. We must encourage Ghanaians in all walks of life to blow the whistle. It is no use passing a whistle blower’s bill whilst hanging the “referee” as a deterrent to others. Did the attorney general and minister for Justice say that Mr. odoom is not a whistle blower because he identified himself as the author of the allegations? Auntie Betty, please hurry up with the legislative process required to wean off the attorney general position from the Justice Ministry. An independent AG will do this nation a lot of Good.

So like Adam and like Eve the government has passed the buck to the civil servants. Like the serpent the civil servants can’t pass it further. Is there a civil servants association? I think those guys should put away their political leanings and fight for their own. Are there anti-corruption organizations in this country? This is one for you.

My little song Mr. President,

Tongues itch to sing

If we let them loose

Our future glows brighter

If we hang the heads

The lesson is clear

Speak no evil.

-Ogyakromian writes.

REPUBLIC IN DANGER – A PROPHESY FULFILLED?

“Africa is a paradox which illustrates and highlights neo-colonialism. Her earth is rich, yet the products that come from above and below the soil continue to enrich, not Africans predominantly, but groups and individuals who operate to Africa’s impoverishment” –Kwame Nkrumah

Today is Republic day in Ghana. On the 1^st day of July 1960, Ghana was confirmed as a republic. This meant our beloved Ogyakrom had become a State whose destiny will be determined by the inhabitants of the state through leadership coming from the citizens. Headship of our state was transferred from the queen of England to persons elected by Ghanaians. In the heat of the liberation struggle that led to the birth of the republic, the first president of Ghana asserted the desire of Ghanaians to relinquish our status as an appendage of the whims and caprices of London, in many defiant speeches from which have emanated some great quotes that underscore the black man’s struggle.

“It is far better to be free to govern or misgovern yourself than to be governed by anybody else” – Kwame Nkrumah

“We prefer self-government with danger to servitude in tranquility.” –Kwame Nkrumah

“The black man is capable of managing or mismanaging his own affair” –Kwame Nkrumah

What Nkrumah didn’t perceive was that some of these vitriolic attacks, aimed at people who did not see the need for the birth of the republic, would be take literarily by the beneficiaries of the republic. As if to say “Kwame Nkrumah gave us options “govern” or “misgovern”, the later is fine”, African leaders have continually misgoverned and mismanaged this continent to the extent that the “vision” of self government with danger has almost been attained in many States in Africa. The leadership, tacitly supported by the actions and in-actions of citizenry, has turned the continent into an epitome of failure.

We shamelessly spent over seventy million US dollars to celebrate fifty years of Ogyakromian independence fraught with massive under achievement and mediocrity. We cannot provide treated water and electricity to majority of our people, Our health system is in shambles, our lands are very fertile and have been under used yet we cannot produce enough to feed our selves, post harvest losses is still the bane of our agriculture, our educational system is not fit for purpose, too many women die trying to give birth, the most important resources of our nation are owned by foreigners, majority of our citizens lack self confidence and will pander to the whims of any light skinned man as if he is God, too many people lack decent accommodation, the CVs of our presidents are laden with trips abroad to beg our neo-colonial benefactors to fund our budgets- What the hell were we celebrating with 70 million dollars?

To commemorate our republican under-achievement, the president usually fetes senior Ogyakromian citizens to celebrate their contribution to the mess we have all created. At this gathering, it is usual to hear our seniors complaining about one hardship or another, and the fact that nobody remembers their toil. With our usual lack of introspection, these old folks do not realize that the Ghana we see today is the Ghana they created. Once, they were young and had the opportunity to make a difference, they blew it big time. This is the only recognition they deserve-they are the architects of our present failure.

I challenge all our senior citizens this day, to look back at their contribution-

The policeman who always upheld the law and lost the bribe;

The planner who acted to uphold the integrity of the city’s layout;

The procurement officer who didn’t compromise any procurement process for his personal gains;

The teacher in that village, who didn’t sacrifice his pupils’ time to tap palm wine from his farm;

The resident of Nima who didn’t dump refuse in that open gutter;

The engineer whose only incentive for certifying a road project as complete is because it met the agreed standard;

The accountant that always gave the true account

The business man who didn’t crave the opportunity to short change the state in taxes

The civil servant who did not require any inducement to do what she was paid for;

The banker whose lending decisions were not based on 10 percent kick-backs;

The doctor who never sacrificed his commitment to patients in that public hospital for a stint of locum;

And the citizen who stood for conscience and not for tribe;

If there be such amongst them, let them stand and be honoured.

And for those of us in the saddle today, may we be reminded that tomorrow’s Ghana, is what we build today. If we continue to live without principled values, where our definition of a criminal depends on the party of the accused, where we can only disapprove of an action if it is taken by a member of the opposite party, where we are blinded by where we come from, where we sell national resources to our cronies and foreigners for what we will personally gain in return, where we refuse to weigh our actions against the well being of the state today, tomorrow and the future, where we refuse to demand accountability from the people who are entrusted with our resources and where we refuse to account for what is entrusted to us, we PUT THE REPUBLIC IN DANGER (“We prefer self-government with danger …”) . We will retire and question why pensioners are treated with disdain, why the state is so disorganized, and where all our resources went.

Where is the next Kwame Nkrumah? We need a new proclamation.

– We will prove that the black man is capable of managing his own affairs. We choose freedom and we are not scared! We choose governance and reject abuse! We are black but our star will shine brightest!- The Ogyakromian!